I live in an unusual apartment setup: a two-bedroom unit gets gigabit internet, while my separate studio room is on the other side of the building. There is a functional coax outlet in the studio, but MoCA adapters never worked, possibly because the rooms are connected through incompatible splitters or separate coaxial wiring. My internet provider and landlord have not been able to help with adding the necessary coax equipment.
Powerline Ethernet also failed because the studio and the main apartment appear to use separate electrical panels or circuits. That raises some unrelated questions about how the electricity is metered, but it does not seem usable for networking.
For now, I am using a dual-band Wi-Fi extender that gets about 40 Mbps near the studio wall and roughly 10 Mbps at my PC. A second router configured as a relay improves that to around 25 Mbps, but this is still far below the gigabit connection.
A long Ethernet cable would be the simplest reliable solution, but the direct route is more than 30 meters and would be unattractive and potentially create a tripping hazard. There is also sheet metal between the walls, making it difficult to pass a cable directly through. Would a wireless mesh system work better, and do mesh nodes have to use Ethernet backhaul, or can they relay wirelessly? Are fiber or any other options worth considering?
4 Answers
The MoCA problem may be caused by the coax paths being separated by a splitter, amplifier, filter, or different wiring sections. MoCA adapters need a continuous compatible coax path between locations, and a splitter that passes ordinary television signals may still block MoCA frequencies. If the landlord or provider cannot verify the coax topology, it may be difficult to troubleshoot without access to the building wiring. Powerline networking is similarly unlikely to work across separate panels or circuits.
The sheet metal is probably the main reason the Wi-Fi performs so poorly. A mesh system can use wireless backhaul, but if the walls are blocking the signal, simply replacing the extender may not solve the problem. You may need an extra node placed in a hallway or another location where it can communicate well with both sides. A basic wireless survey can help find the best positions, and mesh usually works better than a generic repeater when the nodes are placed strategically.
Mesh nodes do not always need Ethernet cables. Most consumer mesh systems can connect to one another over Wi-Fi, while wired Ethernet backhaul is optional and generally gives the best speed and reliability. The important part is that each node must be placed where it still receives a strong signal from the previous node. With metal between the rooms, you may need one or more nodes in intermediate areas rather than placing the second node directly in the studio.
The most dependable solution is still a wired connection. Flat Ethernet can be easier to hide along a ceiling or wall, and a 30-meter-plus run is still within the normal Ethernet distance limit. You could terminate it at an access point or mesh node in the studio instead of connecting the PC directly. If copper would be too visible or difficult to route, thin fiber is another option: use a fiber cable between media converters, then connect ordinary Ethernet from the converter to your router and PC. Fiber is lightweight, narrow, and not affected by electrical circuits or interference.
Fiber may be a better fit here because it can be tucked along trim or the ceiling with much less visual impact than a thick Ethernet cable. It would require a converter at each end, but the setup is fairly straightforward.
That makes sense. I had only considered putting a node in the studio, but adding one somewhere between the apartment and studio might avoid having the signal pass directly through all the metal.